


Wouldn't It Be Nice

by WellWidget



Series: Unlibraryverse [2]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-12
Updated: 2012-12-12
Packaged: 2017-11-20 22:50:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/590524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WellWidget/pseuds/WellWidget
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of interconnected one-shots developing a relationship between Donna Noble and The Doctor after Midnight. Can be read as a standalone story, or as following my previous rewrite. Includes cricket, Henry VIII, deserted islands, Space Vegas and more!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sunday Morning

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Ani DiFranco's "Sunday Morning," but not a songfic.

After they were back in flight, away from Midnight, the Doctor surprised Donna with the fact that he was going to go rest -- she had never seen him sleep or really rest -- ever, so when she questioned him, he explained that he didn't really need sleep, but the TARDIS had a special room where he could be cut off from everything and rest his weary mind without any interference from anything else.   
  
This of course, let her alone in the TARDIS, without company -- something fairly odd. To her, it sounded as if the great big outer space dunce needed a vacation from the running and the monsters and was just too proud to admit it, instead, going to his special room to have a sulk.   
  
So, she decided that if he wouldn't take a vacation, maybe she could make him. She had been learning to fly the TARDIS after all -- and the Doctor always told her that the TARDIS went where she wanted sometimes. So, after about an hour of reading some popular novel from the thirty-first century, Donna stood up from the jump seat and caressed the controls. "Sunday morning in Chiswick?" She offered, quietly. "He could probably use a day on Earth, just eating banana pancakes and getting away from everything."  
  
Unsure if the machine could answer, she placed herself at the temporal controls -- the only ones she truly understood to any degree -- and set the date for the Sunday nearest to the date on her mobile. Across the console, the bell rung and the rotor moved on it's own.  
  
And no mallet required! Donna would remember that after their vacation. Asking nicely seemed to work better, not that it should be a surprise. As they landed, the scanner showed Donna her street, and she patted the console. "Thanks." She paused. "Don't let him leave without me if he gets it in his thick skull that I'm trying to abandon him."  
  
Just in case, though, she left a gorgeous wide-brimmed blue hat on the jumpseat so that he knew he couldn't just  _leave_  with all her things.   
  
The house was empty, as she had expected, and she flicked on the telly to keep her company as she settled in for something she hadn't done since she left with the Doctor.   
  
~*~  
  
The Doctor was able to escape his innate time sense somewhat inside the rose-smelling Zero Room, a place he had retreated too often to think in his first incarnation and not-to-think in other regenerations. It was the perfect place to escape everything and be alone.   
  
The thing was, at his age, it was very hard to be alone with your own thoughts and memories. That's why he always looked for companions -- not just to share the universe with, though that was part of it, but so that he wouldn't be so utterly, completely alone. Eventually, he headed back to the console room, surprised that it was empty. Had it been so long that Donna had gotten bored?  
  
"Donna?" He called out in confusion, finding out quite quickly through his ship and the lack of a response that Donna was gone. In a panic, he immediately started pounding buttons to figure out where the irrepressible ginger had disappeared too.  
  
With a sound almost like a sigh, the doors opened, as if the TARDIS was making up for Donna's absence by calling him a "big outer space dunce" without so many words.   
  
Chiswick.  
  
The Doctor's stomach dropped to his feet and he looked over at the console, remembering fondly Donna's flying lessons. It was then he spotted the hat and a wrapped package. Hoping that maybe, just maybe, the purpose had been gift-giving alone, he grabbed both and left the TARDIS safe and sound on the corner.  
  
~*~  
  
"How did we end up in Chiswick?" The Doctor asked, as he found Donna in the  _kitchen_  of the house, making, what seemed to be breakfast. A very big breakfast in fact. Which seemed odd, considering that he had been very thorough in his scan for Sylvia.   
  
"I set the date and asked nicely." Donna replied, turning around and shaking her spatula at him, flinging what seemed to be droplets of batter about. She started to turn back and noted what he was carrying. "Oi! How'd you find your present? Is that what you do while I'm not around? Snoop through my things?"  
  
"Present?" The Doctor said dumbly, looking down at the gift. "It was on the jump seat with the hat. I thought maybe you were bringing your family souvenirs."   
  
"Wot, and risk compromising the timeline or making some baddie for us to run from 'cause something is here before it's been created? I bloody well think not. I'm not that daft, thank you." Donna said with a huff, stopped in mid-rant by the need to turn over the crepes she had been making.   
  
"So it's for me?" The Doctor said in confusion. " _Why?_ "  
  
"Because!" Donna declared, and the Doctor made a seemingly wise choice and didn't ask anything further, afraid of making his companion angry.   
  
"So...we're just here for a visit?" The Doctor asked. "See Wilf and...Sylvia and off we go?"  
  
Donna expertly dumped batter into a pan and then slipped it into the oven. "No, we're here to give you a break from running for a day. You've shown me the universe, now I show you Chiswick."  
  
It was on the tip of his tongue to remind her that he had seen places she couldn't even imagine, but then he thought better of it. He took the thought as it was meant, as a gift. A tiny look into the world of Donna Noble.   
  
After five minutes of just sitting there, watching her and trying not to think about how well his hands would fit on her hips, he cleared his throat. "Can I open my present?"  
  
Donna worried her lip as she rolled an orange under her palm. She had bought it on a whim, but she had never had the courage to actually give it to him, because she was sure he would find it terribly boring or outdated or  _something._  "It's probably not any good." She warned him. "Don't get your hopes up. I tried to throw it out once, but the TARDIS threw it back up at me, so it's not even good for incineration or whatever happens to our rubbish." Certain his hopes wouldn't be up  _too_  far, she added. "But yeah, you can. I kept the receipt, just in case."  
  
The Doctor looked at her oddly, trying to understand why one would keep a receipt for a gift, but then he shrugged and opened the TARDIS blue paper. He blinked at the heavy book inside the paper. Condensed Matter, Space Pressure and Subsonic Telepathy. She had bought him a physics book. A really interesting looking Physics textbook from the thirty-first century.  
  
"Brilliant!" He declared effusively. He put the book down and jumped the counter, wrapping his arms around her waist and hugging her tight while spying over her shoulder. "Thank you, Donna!" His hands may have wandered, just a bit toward the curve of her hips, but the expected 'Hands!' didn't come and he didn't dare push his luck.   
  
He went back to his seat on the other side of the counter, and cracked open the book, which made that irresistible 'snik' noise that accompanied never-opened books.   
  
Fifteen minutes later, turning the cake in the oven, Donna glanced at the Doctor, who seemed to be engrossed in the book. It made her smile and she poured a glass of juice for him without asking.   
  
When Sylvia Noble and her father returned to the house after church, they found a full Sunday breakfast waiting for them, like Geoffery had done so often, and Donna making what seemed to be a smoothie of some sort.   
  
~*~  
  
Breakfast was about what Donna expected -- her mother criticised this and that, and remarked on the lack of phone calls to her mobile, sending glares at the Doctor while he and Wilf discussed old music, aliens, and planets.   
  
After the mountain of dishes were done, Donna changed, and came back out to the kitchen, reaching for her hat and throwing the Doctor's shed suit jacket at him. "Come on, Martian. I've got another surprise for you."  
  
"Another one?" The Doctor said in surprise. He followed her dutifully, content to be the companion for the moment, throwing on his suit jacket and following her to the little blue car with only a little grumbling.  
  
He was shocked where he ended up. He would have been far less surprised if she had somehow compacted space to allow them to walk from Chiswick to China then when they drove up to the Chiswick and Latymer Cricket Club.   
  
"Donna, you hate cricket." The Doctor felt the need to point out.   
  
"Yeah, but you like it," Donna replied, offering him her arm, as if she were a gentleman in a movie. "Get a move on, Spaceman, you'll need to get kitted up."  
  
"I get to play?" The Doctor said in amazement.   
  
"They have new players all the time." Donna assured him. "And of course you're playing, dumbo. Like a footy fan like me is going to sit up in the stands without a bloke to cheer for? I don't think so."  
  
~*~  
  
At the end of the day, the Doctor was a little dirty, and carrying a cricket kit and a book as they walked back to the TARDIS. He had so many things he wanted to say -- about how brilliant she was, about how wonderful the day had been, and when she was about to step into the TARDIS, he stopped her. For a moment, he looked in to her blue-green eyes, trying to settle on a word, any word.  
  
For once in this incarnation, he was properly speechless with something other than horror. It was obvious to him that she was getting frustrated, and just as she opened her lips to no doubt scold him for keeping her out in the chilly air, he kissed her. He kissed her with all the gratitude and uncertainty and worry, all of his fears of how he put her in danger, all of him, the good parts and the bad parts. He pulled back when his respiratory bypass kicked in, and took a deep breath.   
  
"Thank you, Donna Noble." He said slowly. "You make Sundays worth landing on."


	2. Pastime With Good Company

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by Henry Tudor's "Pastime With Good Company," but not a songfic.

Donna Noble loved hats. It was one of those funny little things that The Doctor knew about Donna. She loved hats so much that when boarding the TARDIS, she brought a  _hatbox_  onboard. The Doctor had always intended to take her to the Planet of the Hats, and after she went to all the work to show him a good time in Chiswick, he thought it was the perfect time.  
  
It didn't go well. When they were back in the TARDIS she had slung many new slights in his direction and headed off to the pool, determined not to come out until she had lost twenty pounds.   
  
It hadn't even crossed the Doctor's mind that all the people on Lataxiar VI were small and thin. There was a  _reason_  it was known as the Planet of the Hats -- the hats took all the attention, not the grey-skinned humanoids that no one outside the species, even The Doctor, could tell apart. He didn't know it would be a blow to Donna's self-consciousness. He didn't understand where her preoccupation with her weight came from, but he would have placed money on Sylvia or Nerys, possibly both.  
  
He had wanted to thank her and mucked it up royally, so clearly the answer was to take her somewhere where she would be seen as a feminine ideal. Where no one wanted skinny and small. He considered destinations for awhile, eliminating planets where she would be seen as a goddess, and then, inspiration struck.   
  
~*~  
  
"Donna..." He said, carrying several heavy dresses and shoes into the pool room and lying them on a chair. "Donna, I'm taking you to meet Henry VIII, an old friend of mine. I pulled some dresses for you, when you're ready." The fact that she said nothing as he backed out of the room meant she was still angry, and he went to fiddle about in the console room until she felt willing to come along.   
  
~*~  
  
It had been exactly two hours, twenty-four-minutes, and fifty-seven point eighty-eight seconds before Donna appeared in the console room, dressed in the finest gown he had offered up, still adjusting the hood on her hair. He was glad she was distracted, or she wouldn't have allowed him to get away with staring at the way the dress pushed up her bosom in the most flattering way. Even he had changed, since he had so much time, and when she noticed, she giggled at his ensemble, but said nothing, even though he could tell there were a thousand cheeky remarks going through her head.   
  
"Right then, old Henry VIII, good fellow." The Doctor said, giving her a smile.   
  
"As long as I don't end up without my head," Donna said in warning.   
  
"Never worry about that!" The Doctor said easily, gesturing to the secondary position on the console. "I think we're aiming early, before Anne." The TARDIS seemed equally interested in soothing Donna's ire, because she pitched only as much as could not be helped with two pilots. They landed with the familiar noise, and the Doctor grinned widely as he flung open the doors of the police box, exposing a corridor of some castle.   
  
"A real castle?" Donna said, stepping out. "We're not going to get thrown into a dungeon, are we?"  
  
"No, Donna." The Doctor replied. "Most Tudor palaces didn't have them -- that's what the Tower was for -- but we're only here to have some fun."  
  
"I'll be amazed if I can fit through doors." Donna replied, but despite the self-deprecation, she was smiling. It was progress in the Doctor's mind, and before long, they came to the gardens, where it seemed the king and his company were walking.  
  
"Oh, brilliant!" The Doctor enthused. "This must be Greenwich Palace, also known as the Palace of Placentia, not to be confused with Greenwich Castle, which was where the Royal Observatory is in your time..."  
  
Donna shushed him. "Sometimes it can be wonderful without the babble, Doctor. Tell me later, experience it now."  
  
That was a nice thing about Donna -- she would listen to his lectures later, in the TARDIS, even if he wasn't sure how much she really heard and how much she was just listening to him talk. He reluctantly filed it away, wanting to talk about the restoration project in the forty-third century at some point.   
  
~*~  
  
Apparently, the TARDIS had chosen a good time period for Donna. He was grateful...at first. Her comment about Henry being "well fit" made him want to go on about what Henry had been like in middle age, though -- gout, pus-filled leg, so heavy he could no longer ride or dance, instead.   
  
Was he jealous? He considered the thought and dismissed it out of hand. He had never gotten jealous over Rose spending time with Jack, after all, and if there was someone to be jealous of, it was Captain Jack Harkness.  
  
~*~  
  
The Doctor had to re-evaluate this opinion of his inability to get jealous as Henry was all-too-friendly, inviting his "old friend" to the revels and masque that night, with his "lovely lady."  
  
As the Doctor expected, Donna was a belle of the ball. While older than the average Tudor courtier, she was from a time that had invested in better diet and medicine, and untouched by childbirth she looked younger than many of the women older than she. In this time period she had the middling height and body size that was prized.  
  
The Doctor found himself conversing with Wolsey, while watching Donna dance the Pavane and Galliard she had learned spending the afternoon with Katherine and her ladies.   
  
He didn't dance, he didn't want to dance. There was an oddly familiar feeling to it though, sitting back and watching her dance. It was like the day they first met. He felt a lump in his stomach as a courtier seemed to say something that made Donna laugh.  
  
Okay, he was jealous. He didn't understand it, but he was. There was only one thing for it.   
  
~*~  
  
As one song ended and another began, the Doctor joined the fray, much more structured than would happen in later times, but he took his companion's hand and led her into the Volta.   
  
"You seem to be having fun." The Doctor murmured.   
  
"It's brilliant!" Donna enthused. "Incredibly hot and sweaty, but brilliant. I'm going to sleep like the dead tonight." She poked him in the side when moving her hands. "I see you finally decided to dance. I was waiting for you."  
  
"You were waiting for me?" The Doctor repeated.  
  
"Yes, you big outer space dunce! Who else?" Donna shot back.   
  
That was that. No way Donna was ever meeting Captain Jack Harkness. And if she did, the Doctor would glare at him so hard he'd lose a life.


	3. Five Things and a Desert Island

The Doctor was standing alone in the console room, half-heartedly poking buttons. It had been a rough day, helping child soldiers escape their commanders on Artemis II. Donna had taken her usual break to relax and recover, somewhere in her rooms, leaving the Doctor with bad memories and dark thoughts.

He moved around the console as the TARDIS warbled at him, and caught sight of the magazine on he jump seat. It was one of Donna's, who had started a collection of glossy mags from all the different times and planets that they visited, where possible. She had expected him to criticise, but given his collections over the years, he had no room to say anything, and told her so.

Given that he didn't have anything else to do, and if he kept trying to fiddle with the controls the Old Girl would more than warble at him, he sat down on the jump seat and began to page through it.

~*~

By the time time Donna appeared, inspiration had struck, and the mag was left where it had been as the Doctor twiddled buttons and dials in his usual frenetic fashion. "Donna!" He greeted happily. "What five things would you take to a desert island? Go on, get packed, but remember, only five things!"

~*~

The doors to the TARDIS swung open, revealing a gorgeous alien beach, two suns hanging in a violet sky over a beach of off-white sand, and what was more, completely deserted. Donna did the only thing she could, holding a sea grass tote the TARDIS had waiting on her bed when she had gone to find her 'five things.' "It's a beach."

"Yes!" The Doctor said easily, carrying a bag of his own. (He had declared that the bags 'didn't count.') 

"We actually made it to a beach." Donna repeated. 

"I told you we would." The Doctor replied, confused. 

"But how often do we make it to where you say we will?" Donna pointed out, stepping cautiously out onto the sand. "What planet are we on?"

"Balhoon." The Doctor said in an injured tone at the insult to his driving, albeit probably well-deserved. "An uninhabited island on the equator, because it's too warm for the Balhoonians."

"So not deserted for sea monsters or plague then." Donna said happily. She took off her cover up and laid it on the sand, having decided not to waste an "item" on a towel. It was worth getting her cover-up covered in sand if it meant she got to go to an actual beach. When the Doctor didn't answer, though, she turned and looked at him, apparently frozen in place. "Oi, what's wrong with you?"

The Doctor opened his mouth to say something and then shut it again. One thing he hadn't considered when planning this outing was what people wore to the beach. That wasn't quite right, he had, in fact, planned for his own swimming needs, but hadn't considered Donna's swimwear.

That was an oversight if there ever was one. He opened his mouth again and closed it, struck slightly dumb by the sight of Donna in a blue bikini. It was just...all there. Somehow, he dimly found words, too much of them, in fact. 

"No, no plagues or sea monsters, we're in the nineteenth Balhoon century, which means that the last plague was seven hundred years ago, and culminated in the destruction of one-half of the population as well as the development of some of the most advanced medical equipment in this quadrant of the galaxy."

"Works for me." Donna replied, and settled on her wrap, sunglasses on, to sunbathe. 

The Doctor found himself reduced to staring, and shook himself when Donna had issued and irritated 'What?' in his direction. Obviously, he had to get away. There was just too much Donna for his brain to handle at this moment. So he moved a few feet away, pulled out an umbrella and a towel, set up his own spot, and shucked out of his suit to his swimming trunks. Then, with another glance at Donna, he shook himself and ran headlong to the shore, jumping into the clear, pristine water to attempt to cool himself off and think about something other than the amount of Donna-skin left exposed on the beach.

~*~

Donna was happier than she would like to admit, being on a deserted beach with waves beating along a shore. This was the most pristine beach she had ever seen, which made sense, if the people on this planet couldn't take the heat. To Donna, after the bone-deep chill of the rain at the last planet they visited, the warmth was a welcome change. 

She glanced up from some bestseller she had bought when they had been in 2043, tilting her sunglasses down in interest when she heard a loud splash. She shook her head to herself as she watched the Doctor swim about like a child on his first holiday. Turning back to the book, she loosened the halter to her bikini so she wouldn't end up with very obvious lines on her chest -- she wasn't tacky, like Nerys, after all. 

She was halfway through her chapter, when she glanced up again, only for her sight to be slightly impaired by the bright sunlight. She wondered if she had fallen asleep as she shaded her eyes to see a dripping wet specimen of masculinity coming closer to her. Her mouth went dry, thinking that this put Mr. Colin Firth to shame, only to be in for the shock of her life a few seconds later when she realised it was none other than the Doctor.

Bloody hell! How did those suits of his hide a body like that? She cleared her throat, shook her head and decided she had been out in the sun too long, reaching for the bottle of water she had brought with her in her bag. "Have fun swimming, Spaceman?"

The Doctor shook out his hair like a wet puppy, drawing Donna's attention to his eyes. "Oh, it was brilliant." He enthused. "The coral reefs along here are fantastic." 

Donna fixed her swimsuit top, tying the halter again, and smiled at him. "Think you could do me a favour?" She asked, putting a bit of her 'womanly wiles' into action, elongating her legs and stretching, as if she was tired from lying in one position too long. 

The Doctor's eyes followed the movement, drawn wide in surprise. Before he had even realised it, he was speaking. "Anything for you, Donna."

Donna grinned and pulled a camera out of her bag. "Can you sonic a delay on this? I want to get pictures of us to send home. We just have to make sure we don't get the suns in the shot."

"What if I didn't bring the sonic?" The Doctor asked in surprise.

Donna rolled her eyes. "Of course you brought the sonic. You wouldn't have not brought it."

The Doctor gave her an abashed grin, and pulled the sonic out of the pocket of his suit, carefully sonicing her camera to give it a proper delay. He then set to constructing a kind of make-shift tripod out of the sturdy bamboo-like grass along the dunes.

When finished, he pointed it at the beach itself, and made sure to have only one sun in the shot, and stepped back. "Okay!"

Donna put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Get over here, you big outer space dunce!" She shouted. He looked confused, but jogged over beside her, and was pleasantly surprised when she curled into his side.

The camera went off.

Several days later, when they stopped in 2013 to see a fantastic West Ham game, she stopped in to a photo shop and had the picture printed in several sizes, and made a few postcards.

She then demanded they go back to her normal time, and took a great amount of joy out of carefully inscribing notes on the back of the postcards -- before posting them. She was only sad that she wouldn't get to see people's reactions.

~*~

Wilf always got the mail, just in case something came for him that Sylvia wouldn't approve of. He almost considered not showing it to his daughter, but smiled at the photo anyway. Donna, on a beach somewhere, with that Doctor's arm around her. She was looking at the camera, but the Doctor was looking at her -- and Wilf could tell right off how happy they both were. He went straight to the kitchen and stuck it on the refrigerator.

~*~

Nerys got hers the same day, and saw the back first: 'Having lovely time on holiday -- beaches are so much better than tanning. ~ Donna'.

Nerys didn't know where Donna Noble had gone, Sylvia just kept saying that she was 'lollygagging about' with 'some doctor.' Nerys flipped the postcard over and turned green with envy. She recognised him from Donna's aborted wedding to Lance. At the time, Nerys thought Donna was being ridiculous, she wasn't going to do any better than Lance, obviously, but if something like that had come into her life again on her wedding day (and a doctor no less!) she probably would have disappeared too. 

Well, after she opened the gifts. 

Bloody Donna. She wasn't even that thin, let alone well-off. How did she do it?


	4. Lucky

"A date?" Donna said, voice laced with doubt. "You mean a proper date, not going to see the Hanging Gardens and ending up being chased by long-necked aliens? Can you do that?

"Of course I can!" The Doctor said, his hands running through his hair as he puffed up with imagined offence. Donna thought it rather made him look like a cockatoo. "A proper date it is -- you just go get ready, and leave the rest to me. "

Donna eyed him curiously, but shrugged and headed off to her room, secretly reminding herself to pack a pair of flats in her purse, just in case. Still, she liked the idea of a date, and decided that even if there would be running, she could look good doing it. 

~*~

The Doctor had a plan, and he threatened the Old Girl with the mallet if she even so much as whirred in a way that suggested she might manipulate the plan from romantic date into adventure. He thought he had done pretty well thus far in finding adventure-less stops, compared to the past. 

His only worry was what to wear. The tuxedo could be nothing but a bad idea, but if he wore what he always did it would suggest that he wasn't taking it serious or considering it a special occasion. It was a no-win situation. He sighed and headed for the wardrobe. 

The tuxedo it was, and the Doctor pulled nervously at his lapel as he waited in the console room, suddenly worrying that he wouldn't be able to keep his word with the curse of the tuxedo hanging about him like his old scarf. 

Suddenly, then, brilliance, and he rushed off toward the kitchen. 

~*~

In her own opinion, Donna had outdone herself, even if her dress was only her favourite Little Black Dress. It was a staple in women's fashion for a reason, and sometime she really should convince the Doctor to let them visit Coco Chanel so she could buy an original little black dress.

She was excited, if she were to admit it to anyone, even herself. She always moved quickly in relationships, but this was different. The Doctor knew her better than anyone, except maybe Gramps. That made dating, such as they had been doing for the past three months -- and there could be no other word for it, almost terrifying. Terrifying and exciting. An alien planet, for as normal a date as they could get...

And her date was wearing a vegetable pinned to his lapel. 

"Doctor." Donna said calmly, but with a strain. "Is that celery?"

"Yep." The Doctor replied with a pop. "Wonderful veg, celery, saved my life once. It's to counteract the curse of the tuxedo."

Donna placed her hands on her hips. "Oh, Spaceman." She said, in almost a growl. "You are so lucky I love you."

There was absolute silence in the TARDIS for a moment. Donna flushed, and the Doctor's mouth fell open in surprise. 

"Yes." The Doctor said after a moment. "Yes, I am. Luckier than I can imagine that the beautiful, brilliant Donna Noble loves me back."


	5. Viva Space Vegas

The people of Space Vegas, an asteroid just on the edge of the second galaxy of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire were particularly grateful to Donna and the Doctor for saving them from a protection racket of card sharks who were actually...well, sharks. Humanoid sharks, but definitively members of the superorder Selachimorpha. 

In most of these cases, he would thank them and the pair would head off to the TARDIS for the next adventure, or, as things had been going lately, some snogging and a bit of a cuddle. 

Except, this time, Donna looked up at him all excited as the Benefactor of Space Vegas offered them the finest penthouse and free access to all the shows and fine food they could want for their rescue. Usually, the Doctor was very careful not to accept anything of high value for any heroics that might occur. It cheapened his motives, and made him look more like a mercenary than he would have liked. In this case, however, he could hardly say no.

That was how he found himself walking down the Strip, holding Donna's hand and listening to her bubble over in excitement over everything. He was glad he had made the decision to stay. 

"I've always wanted to go to Las Vegas." Donna admitted. "Nerys went once, and she lorded it over me for ages" She got an evil grin on her face that meant she was mentally imagining what the other woman would say if Donna could tell her about their adventure. "And now I'm in Space Vegas. I win."

"I always thought I'd like to be a magician in Las Vegas sometime." The Doctor said thoughtfully. "But I think I'd get bored unless I had some mystery to solve or someone to hunt down."

Donna laughed. "You could pull anything out of your hat because it would be bigger on the inside."

The Doctor grinned back. "You could be my beautiful assistant."

Donna winked at him. "I already am." 

That comment alone made the Doctor's hearts glad that they had stayed. It was so rare that Donna would accept praise about herself, let alone make a positive comment about her looks that it made the Doctor want to buy a penthouse on the asteroid, if it meant that it could make her that happy, before drinks even.

They ate dinner as they watched the anti-gravity Cirque de Galaxie tribute to fairy tales from Earth, and drinks as they watched a Blue Man Tribute group from Crespallion. Donna had indulgently accompanied him to the magic show he so wanted to see, and clapped and cheered for him when he got pulled onstage for a trick. 

They then relaxed watching a hologram show of Elvis in Vegas, and ate hot pretzels made of some sort of fruit-flavoured dough as they walked towards the last show for the night, a tribute to Old Vegas on Earth, with Rat Pack Impersonators. 

"I always wanted to get married in Vegas." Donna admitted as they walked, leaning her head on his shoulder, free hands entwined. "I tried to convince Lance, but he was too stubborn to elope. Said my Mum and his would kill him." Donna blew a lock of hair out of her face. "I guess the real reason was that it was too far away from the Racnoss ship."

"I don't know, Sylvia's pretty intimidating." The Doctor remarked, and chuckled when she elbowed him. "Why didn't you insist?"

"I was getting old." Donna replied, more candid than she usually was, and quite a bit quieter. "Mum kept saying how I was never going to get a man, about how no one would want a temp -- and I just thought -- well, why not Lance?"

"You're not old." The Doctor replied, quietly. "So you didn't love him?"

"I think I thought I was in love." Donna replied. "I wanted to be in love and married so badly, and he was...well, I thought he was kind. The coffee story-- that's the kind of thing you read about in books and see in movies." She shook her head. "Doesn't matter. I've something better than getting married. Anyone can get married, not everyone can go to Space Vegas. It's not such a bad thing to miss out on, being married."

The Doctor stopped, turning to look at her serious. "I don't want you to miss out on anything, Donna Noble. You're brilliant. I want you to have everything."

"You've given me the universe, and a lifetime with you." Donna said, taken aback by the serious expression on his face. "What else is there?"

The Doctor turned this over in his mind, considering everything. "Me. Marry me."

"What?!" Donna repeated wrenching her hand out of his. "I don't think so, Sunshine!"

The Doctor hadn't considered marriage in a great many years, but that was the last answer he expected, and he pulled back, injured. "What? Why!"

Donna gestured and started to turn red looking at him like he was an idiot. "I don't want some pity wedding." She was working herself up into a right state. "I'm not having you tie yourself to me, just because you feel bad."

"Donna, I would never do that!" The Doctor said, horrified. "Marriage on Gallifrey was one of the few things that might be called sacred. The bonding of minds was very serious!"

"Exactly!" Donna argued. "I'm just a human. I'll be dead in fifty years or so -- maybe even less depending on what scuffs we get ourselves into. I've seen the pain you have from losing your families, how could I put you through that again? I can't live forever."

They were drawing a crowd, but the Doctor didn't notice. He put his hands on either side of Donna's face and held her still, forcing her to look into his eyes. "Donna Noble, you are the most stubborn, self-deprecating, frustrating, beautiful, brilliant, empathetic, feeling woman I have ever met in the whole of time and space." She opened her mouth to say something, but he shook his head, cutting her off before she so much as squeaked. "I meant it when I said I loved you. And I know that you'll die some day, that you'll leave me -- but I'm not about to limit what we can have now because of what the future holds."

"But..." Donna murmured softly, eyes filling with tears. "I'll still spend the rest of my life with you -- you don't have too..."

"I rarely do anything I have too." The Doctor replied. "Say yes, Donna." He paused and dropped his hands. "That is...if you want too."

He received an elbow to the gut for that, and when he looked up, she kissed him hard. "Yes, you idiot."

~*~

That was how, a day later, Donna Noble found herself standing in the Benefactor's Palace, dressed in a brand new wedding dress that a lovely alien woman had altered and fit to her, being married to the Last Time Lord. 

Though she would never admit it later, she cried when he told her his true name, with the Benefactor himself officiating. 

As holovids and all manners of pictures were being taken, Donna leaned in to her new husband and whispered in his ear. "Look, Pockets."

The Doctor laughed.


	6. Gravity

Donna knew jealousy was ridiculous -- but Shan Shen had gotten to her. She said nothing, following her hyperactive Doctor into the TARDIS and heard the blue box hum around her comfortingly as they headed off toward the Shadow Proclamation.

And then there was the noise, like a heartbeat only she could hear. She didn't need to be delusional now, so she ignored it as best as she could. She was grateful when they had left the strange albino race and returned to the TARDIS, where at least Donna felt as though she was home. Leading people into a war was not the Doctor's thing. 

~*~

As they slowly pulled in the Doctor's former companions, Donna realised something. The Doctor was like the beginning of Earth. He was like gravity -- the bigger piece of rock puling all the little rocks in toward him. Even when you ran away, even when you said no as he made it snow -- you always fell back into the circle of his gravity. 

Even if it meant being dragged onto the Dalek crucible and marching toward death via extermination. Then the TARDIS made a noise of refusal and the doors shut her in, separating her from everyone, separating her from Him. 

She pounded on the doors, trying to force her way through -- if she was going to die, she was going to die beside her slightly daft alien -- even if he was a complete berk who tried to reenact a scene from a romance film with Rose-bloody-Tyler. 

He was her rock too -- her gravity too, and he needed her.


	7. Love Don't Roam

The Doctor carried Donna's limp form from the TARDIS the way she had insisted being carried over the threshold the night they were officially married. It seemed appropriate, as his hearts ground together in pain. He wished he could have come up with another answer, known another way -- he couldn't lose her, not completely. He needed to know that she was out there, somewhere -- scuba diving and sleeping off hangovers and missing all the big events, but seeing the little ones. 

His guilt weighed on him heavier, and when he reached the door, he could no longer lift himself from where he had fallen on his knees, let alone the love of his many lives. Someone who he had once thought so insignificant, but had become the brightest star in his universes. "Help," he pleaded.

He listened to the haranguing, the questions, and tried to answer as best he could. It was so hard, when the bond that had once been there was dormant again. Sure, his Donna was alive, but he couldn't  _feel_  her any more, and it felt almost like death.

Before, he left, he kissed her goodnight, slowly, full of passion -- and then walked out before he did something to put her even more at risk. He stood outside the house, back against the door, listening just for a few minutes more, until her words broke his hearts all over again. 

"Do you know who the random guy who just walked in to kiss me goodnight is?"

 


End file.
